Belgian Molecular Imaging Community

Exploring the small details of life starts with bringing people together!

WHERE DOES BMIC STAND FOR

BMIC is a bottom-up initiative promoting the formation of a Belgian network of young imaging scientists in order to provide an easy and informal entry into the larger Imaging Community. Our main focus is to improve the networking of young scientists by creating a platform where the first step towards new contacts is guided through our network events e.g. scientific speed dating. Moreover, we want to give young PhD AND Master students the opportunity to gain experience in presenting data and public speaking as a preparation to international events, such as EMIM or WMIC.WHAT WE DO

BMIC Congress

In 2012 the first BMIC congress was organized with the idea to gather all Belgian molecular imaging labs and collaborating and/or interested groups. Based on the huge success, the organizing committee decided to go on with the concept resulting in the 2015 and 2017 Congresses. At the congresses a few talks are scheduled to start discussions, but a lot of time is allocated to social and scientific interaction, as the organizing committee believes this is the driving force behind research.

Scientific Speed-Dating

Networking is a very important aspect in each of our careers. Nevertheless easier said than done especially when you are young and new in the field. Therefore, we introduced in 2014 the concept of scientific speed dating at the wonderful Autoworld museum (Brussels). The concept is that all subscribed attendees are matched to people from other labs, with different expertise and background. In multiple session of 10 minutes each the participants get the change to introduce themselves and their work. Nice to see how people are having such an interesting conversation that when the `gong` rings to change discussion partners, they would like to stay with their first match. Since it was a great success in Belgium, the concept was introduced at EMIM2015 and since then took place every year with around 100 subscriptions from all over Europe!

Academia meets Industry

In November 2016 we organized a first focused meeting in the concept of Academia Meets Industry which was kindly hosted by Janssen Pharmaceutica at their site in Beerse. Half a day was filled with invited lectures from both partners showing how Molecular Imaging assists in Drug discovery and development. The main goals here are to foster collaborations and to show young scientists that research is not limited to Academia.

WHO WE ARE

Rafael Delgado y Palacios

Works as: Scientific File Manager at the Scientific and Technical-Regulatory Advice Unit of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP)Interested in: The use of Molecular Imaging in CNS Research and Drug Development

Carlien Geldof

Works as: Research Assistant at the In vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging (ICMI) Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Elisabeth Jonckers

Works as: Postdoctoral researcher at the Bio-Imaging Lab at the University of AntwerpWorks on: Imaging neuroplasticity with (rs)fMRI

Liesbeth Vanherp

Works as: PhD-student at Molecular Smal Animal Imaging Center (MoSAIC) at the KULeuvenWorks on: Multimodel imaging for the non-invasive assessment of the pathogenesis and antifungal treatment response in experimental models of Cryptococcus infectionJeroen Verhoeven

Works as: PhD-student at the Laboratory for Radiopharmacy of Ghent UniversityWorks on: Development of amino acid PET tracers for the discrimination between low and high grade glioma